Surely, these aren't examples! They are examples, and don't call us Shirley!:

10-Minute Retirement: After accidentally overhearing Kramer discussing how hopeless it is for him to land the plane, Ted puts the autopilot back in charge and gives up. Dr. Rumack brings him out of it with the revelation that George Zipp, a deceased member of Striker's squadron during The War, didn't blame him for their failed mission.

Accidental Dance Craze: Elaine mimics the gestures of a fellow dancer in the tough-guy bar without realizing he's trying to draw attention to the knife in his back.

Acoustic License: Bill and his girlfriend continue to have a perfectly audible conversation as one is standing in the doorway of a plane in the midst of takeoff and the other is running along on the ground beside it (and knocking over the steel towers in her way).

Adam Westing: Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Leslie Nielsen, and Robert Stack played parodies of their typical roles, in a stilted, hammy fashion. In Bridges and Nielsen's case, this movie led to a career change.

The "I say, Let 'em crash!" Guy was a parody of a now largely forgotten 60 Minutes segment called Point/Counterpoint in which a Conservative (usually James J. Kilpatrick) and Liberal (usually Shana Alexander or Nicholas von Hoffman) debate an issue of the day. The segment was replaced by A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney in the early 80s.

Back in those days, airports really did have Hare Krishnas and other soliciting/panhandling/preaching types all over the place. In later years, airports were given greater ability to control access, so nowadays you don't have to punch one in the face to get to your gate.

Many other traits of air travel have changed over the decades and may not be familiar to younger viewers, such as smoking sections on airplanes or allowing people to meet disembarking passengers right at their arrival gate.

In-flight meals more substantial than a packet of crackers/cookies/nuts and a cup of soda are getting increasingly rare except when a flight is expected to go more than 4-5 hours between stops.

Anachronism Stew: News reporters apparently still wear fedoras in 1979-1980, and a pair of nuns is seen in traditional garb. The jet's prop engine effect may fall into this as well. Most jarringly, Striker's flashbacks to what would logically be the Vietnam War include shots of World War I triplanes and even a pre-Wright-Brothers whirligig, but these can probably be chalked up to Rule of Funny. And the jukebox in his flashback plays sped up "Stayin' Alive" by The Bee Gees.

Arson Murder And Life Saving: In one of the many non-joke lines taken directly from Zero Hour and played straight, Rex Kramer tells Stryker at the end that "that was probably the worst landing in the history of this airport" before offering to buy him a drink and shake his hand.

Artistic License – Geography: As everything else, played for laughs. Striker says he was stationed off the Barbary coast, but also that the Drambuie bar was populated with every reject and cutthroat from Bombay to Calcutta. The Barbary Coast is on the Mediterranean coast of Africa, while Bombay and Calcutta are on opposite sides of India. Meanwhile, all the bar patrons are white.

Artistic License – Military: Ted Striker says that he was in the Air Force, but the flashback in the Drambuie bar has him wearing a US Navy dress uniform (and soldiers aren't supposed to wear their dress uniforms in bars anyway). Of course, had he been wearing the dark blue USAF dress uniform, the subsequent Saturday Night Fever joke wouldn't have worked. He later shows up in an Army hospital, although that could've been justified if he was in WWII, in which he would've been part of the US Army Air Corps, but he's too youngnote Zero Hour, the movie that Airplane! is a parody of, was made in the 1950s, and the Ted in that movie did explicitly serve as a pilot in WWII, and they didn't have disco back then...ahh, screw it and enjoy the movie!

One of the weirdest ones put to film, as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is actually playing co-pilot Roger Murdoch, but the boy touring the cockpit recognizes him, leading to his Suspiciously Specific Denial.

A soldier is suffering psychotic episodes because "he" thinks he's Ethel Merman, even to getting out of bed and bursting into the song "Everything's Coming Up Roses." The soldier is played by Ethel Merman.

As Long as It Sounds Foreign: There are two lighted signs in the aircraft where the Spanish is just phonetic English. "Fasten Seatbelt" is written in English in one shot. Underneath it is "Putana da Seatbeltz" ("put on the seatbelts"). Then during a dive, there's "Return to Seat" / "Gobacken Sidonna" ("Go back and sit down").

Aside Comment: Early in the movie after Elaine has rejected Ted, Ted turns to the camera and says "What a pisser."

Breaking the Fourth Wall: At least two characters do this. Stryker when he turns to the camera and says "What a pisser" and later in the film, Johnny laughs at the audience after he jokingly unplugs the runway lights.

Ted's cab's passenger, who is left with the meter running at the beginning of the film, shows up again after the credits.

The donation-seekers at the airport who accost Elaine and Ted try again with Kramer, with much less fortunate outcomes.

As McCrosky and Kramer are speaking after Kramer first arrives, an Indian spear hits the wall next to him, from the ones who were chasing him earlier.

The Girl Scouts are still fighting long after the disco bar has closed.

When Ted throws off his clothes when dancing, they always get thrown back at him.

The Cameo: The directors (Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker as the ground crewmen who crash a plane into the terminal), Barbara Billingsley, Ethel Merman, Howard Jarvis, and Jimmy "JJ" Walker (as the window washer). According to the director's commentary, Walker was the only "comedy cameo" they accepted. Paramount wanted many of them. The Zuckers' mother is the woman attempting to put on lipstick during the crash landing.

Camp Gay: Johnny is exaggeratedly camp in mannerisms and speech, Played for Laughs because nobody else seems to notice. Actor Stephen Stucker, who played Johnny, was actually like that in real life. He once described himself as being "so flamingly gay" that one could light cigarettes off of him.

Joey: I think you're the greatest, but my dad says you don't work hard enough on defense. And he says that lots of times, you don't even run down court. And that you don't really try... except during the playoffs.

Roger Murdock:The hell I don't!(pulls Joey close and angrily mutters) Listen kid, I've been hearing that crap ever since I was at UCLA. I'm out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!

Topped off by his wearing Lakers shorts, sneakers and goggles when being dragged out of the cockpit.

Christmas Cake: Randy is worried not only about the imminent plane crash, but also about the fact that she's 26 and unmarried.

Cigarette of Anxiety: Steve McCroskey, ground support, picked the wrong week to quit smoking (which he says as he lights up a butt). Also, the wrong week to quit drinking, taking amphetamines, and sniffing airplane glue.

Circling Vultures: They're not circling, but a bunch of vultures perch over the Heroes as they prepare to crash-land.

Circular Drive: Used to multiply the emergency vehicles. The circle is obvious, the film is sped up, and as it goes on more and more incongruous vehicles (including a beer truck and a farm tractor) get added in.

Cloudcuckoolander: Johnny, who always has a... different... take on the action than the people around him. He's the only character who seems to realize that he's in a comedy.

The Running Gag where McCroskey and others ask Johnny to fetch some coffee by asking "how about some coffee" to which he always replies, "No thanks!"

The Comically Serious: The key to the movie's charm. David Zucker made a conscious decision to give the comedic roles to actors known for playing serious, tough-guy characters: Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Peter Graves, and, believe it or not, Leslie Nielsen, who at the time was considered the handsome leading man prototype.

Parodied when Ted Striker, upon meeting the African tribesmen he and Elaine would be working with for their time in the Peace Corps, teaches them how to shake hands. This being accepted, he goes for a "gimme five" and gets punched out for his trouble.

Later, as media outlets around the world are reporting on the runaway aircraft, a stereotypically Polynesian reporter with very little technology at his disposal relays his story by drumbeat. There is a child's drawing of an airplane on the drawing board behind him, instead of a newsroom graphic. Then he's handed a different pair of drumsticks for his next news report, and turns to a different camera.

"This motion picture is protected under the laws of the United States and other countries. Unauthorized duplication, distribution, or exhibition may result in civil liability or criminal prosecution. So there."

Creepy Changing Painting: A comedic version in the inflatable "Otto" pilot doll. Although the face of an inflatable doll receiving a blowjob is still fairly creepy.

Dressed to Heal: Dr. Rumack is introduced wearing a stethoscope for no reason, first shown right after he's asked if he's a doctor. In a later scene, he's giving an OB-GYN exam for no apparent reason - yes, in flight. With stirrups. And holding a vaginal speculum at the ready.

Double subverted with the third case; the man drenches himself in gasoline and lights a match, then blows it out in relief when Ted leaves his seat, only to explode anyway.

Driving a Desk: Rex Kramer's drive to the airport. Parodied viciously as he runs over a bicyclist and passes everything from traffic accidents to raiding Indians on horseback, with only his terrified passenger reacting to what's notionally going on. During another portion, the background shows fast-motion footage of a drive down a winding, hilly road, while Kramer holds the wheel completely straight and still the whole time.

Droste Image: McCroskey stands in front of a framed photograph of himself, striking the exact same pose as in the photograph, which itself contains the same framed photograph in its background. They took it one step further in the sequel.

Even the Girls Want Her: As Ted reminisces about his relationship with Elaine to an old lady, she gets rather intimate in her appraisal.

Falling into the Cockpit: Striker is the only person on board with flying experience after the crew is incapacitated, and so he has no choice but to attempt to land the airliner.

Fanservice Extra: The buxom Francesca "Kitten" Natividad pulls uncredited duty here as the jiggling passenger in the white T-shirt (she later confirmed that she was not the naked woman who appears directly in front of the camera from out of nowhere for no real reason while the rest of the plane is panicking). She makes another blink-and-you'll-miss-it uncredited appearance as the jiggling woman in the "Moral Majority" T-shirt in Airplane II.

Fanservice: During the panic scene, there comes, out of nowhere, a random topless woman who gets *really* close to the camera and disappears.

The technician changing the oil under the airplane's hood, then falls off the ladder trying to pop it shut, as the pilots are discussing the weather in the cockpit. Then we have Oveur being handed the bill for the repairs and him paying it on the spot.

When Dr. Rumack is removing eggs from the woman's mouth and cracks one open to release a bird, the bird nearly hits a passenger in the face as it flies off.

The scene with the two jive dudes helpfully "translates" their conversation into English:

Jive Dude: I say hey, sky—subba say I wan' see—pray to J I did the same-ol', same-ol'! [Subtitle: I KNEW A MAN IN A SIMILAR PREDICAMENT, AND HE ENDED UP BEING SORRY]

For some bonus humor, in this "making of" clip, when the two actors are speaking about the role, some hilarious "jive" subtitles are added to their dialogue.

Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When everyone lines up to slap/punch/club/shoot a hysterical woman, with increasingly lethal weapons as the camera pans down the line.

Getting Crap Past the Radar: Fellatio, cunnilingus, bestiality, paedophilia, topless women, a young girl who takes her coffee black (like her men), pornographic magazines, suicides, and repeated drug use, and it gets a PG rating? (Granted, PG-13 didn't exist back then...) In an interview on Later With Bob Costas, Robert Stack was amazed A) that ZAZ got away with the 'Shit hits the fan' joke and B) that it made him laugh a lot.

In one of his flashbacks, Ted talks about working with the Malombo tribe in the Peace Corps. Everyone is dark-skinned and wear cloth wraps and beads, and the men brandish spears and wear feathered headdresses and face paint.

One appears briefly during the "news bulletin" montage, wearing a necklace of beads and horns while using Jungle Drums to deliver a news report.

Littlest Cancer Patient: The little girl who needs a heart transplant. A horrific moment of Black Comedy (not to mention Soundtrack Dissonance) occurs when Randy sings "River of Jordan" to cheer her up and knocks out her IV with her guitar. Twice. The first time, everyone including her mother are so wrapped up in singing that she nearly flatlines, but she manages to pop the IV back in herself. The second time, her mother actually notices and frantically goes to her daughter's aid.

Mirror Routine: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it gag has Rex Kramer dressing in front of a mirror. In the next shot, we see him seemingly step out of the reflection; between shots the mirror was switched with a doorway and Robert Stack switched positions.

Narm:invoked The line from Zero Hour "We need to find someone who can not only fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner" convinced the Zuckers to make Airplane!.

Never Trust a Trailer: The scene in the trailer showing the nose of a plane crashing through an air terminal's window is not from the climax of the film or some other major scene, and doesn't involve the titular vehicle at all; it is just part of a brief, non-plot-related sight gag that takes place during a 30-second sequence within the first five minutes of the film.

No Antagonist: The plot deals with most of the passengers succumbing to food poisoning.

Offhand Backhand: Striker does this to one of the religious donation-seekers in the airport.

Offscreen Crash: The stewardess' accident after leaving the cockpit, and the ambulance at the end.

Offscreen Inertia: Ted ditches his taxi with a passenger still inside it at the beginning of the movie. Halfway through the movie, we cut back to see the passenger still waiting for him to return. We seem him one last time after the end credits, where he vows to give him only twenty more minutes to come back.

Captain Oveur, listening to Dr. Rumack explain that everyone on the plane who ate fish is going to become violently ill, glances down at his plate which has a fish skeleton on it, then in the background, Dr. Rumack starts describing the symptoms... which Oveur begins to suffer as they are being described.

Ted and Elaine exchange a horrified look when the runway lights go out.

Old Maid: Randy is worried about her age and not being married just yet.

Pinch Me: Ted Striker to a sailor in the Magumba Bar, when he first met Elaine.

Pinocchio Nose: While Dr. Rumack is talking to the passengers, he lies so blatantly that his nose starts to grow, Pinocchio style.

Rumack: There is no reason to panic. It's true the pilot is ill. Slightly ill. The others are doing just fine and they are handling the controls, free to live a life of religious fulfillment.

Plot Time: The movie takes place on one night over the few (four or five, tops) hours it takes to fly from Los Angeles to Chicago, however that amount of time is enough for a pre-Internet world to air TV shows about the plight and publish newspapers

Prison Rape: Captain Oveur has some rather unusual conversation starters while talking to a little boy.

The Remake: The plot and much of the "straight" dialogue were taken from Zero Hour!; which the producers officially acquired the rights for. Here's the dialog script, so you can see for yourself. The lines that also appear in Airplane! are in boldface.

Rule of Three: Dr. Rumack's repeated comment to Ted and Elaine "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you." The third time comes after the plane has come to a full stop.

Running Gag: The page quote, Ted's drinking problem, Ted's suicidal Flashback confidants, "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit (drinking, smoking, sniffing glue, amphetamines)," "The red/white zone is for the loading and unloading...". There are so many threads of repeating gag loops, fading in and out throughout the film, that it's like a comedy movie written as techno music. "I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you."

Sequential Symptom Syndrome: Dr. Rumack describes the effects of the food poisoning in exhaustive detail in the background, while Captain Oveur suffers from them in the foreground in the precise sequence listed. Nobody notices, however, until the poor bastard is reduced to a quivering, wasted piece of jelly.

Dr. Rumack: Extremely serious. It starts with a slight fever and dryness of the throat. [Oveur starts suffering from these] When the virus penetrates the red blood cells, the victim becomes dizzy, begins to experience an itchy rash...

[Oveur starts becoming dizzy and starts scratching his arm]

Dr. Rumack: ....then the poison goes to work on the central nervous system, severe muscle spasms followed by the inevitable drooling....

[Oveur begins to have spasms in his right shoulder and then spits something out of his mouth]

Dr. Rumack: At this point, the entire digestive system collapses accompanied by uncontrollable flatulence....

[Oveur begins to fart noisily]

Dr. Rumack: ...until finally, the poor bastard is reduced to a quivering wasted piece of jelly. [Oveur collapses at the controls]

Smashed Eggs Hatching: Dr. Rumack pulls eggs from a sick lady's mouth, cracks them open and a bird flies out.

Sorry to Interrupt: During the autopilot reinflation scene, the doctor opens the door, sees what's going on and turns right around.

Soundtrack Dissonance: Randy belting out "River of Jordan" while the heart transplant patient frantically tries to plug her own IV back in. May qualify as Adult Fear, although the ambulance scene at the end implies she survived (at least until we heard it crash and saw a hubcap roll by).

So Unfunny, It's Funny: A lot of the film's humor relies on this. Some of the gags are so eye-rollingly obvious and corny that it crosses back over into hilarious.

Jet engines sound no different from propellers despite their different mechanical structures.

Ever hear a real airplane go "chuff...chuff...chuff...chuff" like a steam locomotive while taxiing?

Straight Man: Every actor (except for Johnny) acts as if they are not speaking hilarious lines, which is one of the main reasons why this movie is so great. One of the reasons for avoiding "comedy cameos", according to the directors, was to keep everything seeming serious.

Suspiciously Specific Denial: Roger Murdoch denies he's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as though he doesn't even know who Kareem is. Then he breaks character when Joey starts to criticize his supposed lack of effort on the court.

Rumack: Captain, how soon can you land? Oveur: I can't tell. Rumack: You can tell me, I'm a doctor. Oveur: No. I mean I'm just not sure. Rumack: Can't you take a guess? Oveur: Well, not for another two hours. Rumack: You can't take a guess for another two hours?

This is No Time to Panic: As the unconscious pilot and co-pilot are dragged down the aisle, and when Elaine asks if there's anyone on board who can fly a plane.

Trailers Always Spoil: Averted and lampshaded. The trailers prominently featured a spectacular moment where the front end of a passenger plane smashes through a terminal window as people scatter. Similar in nature to the climactic finale of the recent move Silver Streak, the use of this scene in the trailer suggests a similarly epic finale. In fact, the scene takes place within the first few minutes of the film as the payoff to a minor sight gag and is never referenced again.

Train-Station Goodbye: Parodied as the plane takes off, complete with an "All aboard!" call and the sound of a steam train. It does double-duty as a parody of war movies where the heroic soldier gets a sendoff from his girl — specifically, the Trope Maker, Since You Went Away.

Transparent Closet: Capt. Oveur likes to read "Modern Sperm" and hits on young boys while his wife is cheating (with a horse); sexual deviancy may be the one thing they have in common.

Traveling at the Speed of Plot: The plane is on a couple-hour flight, however in no time the press is aware of the debacle and newspaper stories are published about it.

Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Girl Scouts brawling in a bar (only Ted seems to be concerned by this), a man being stabbed and killed in a bar (Elaine likewise is the only one who notices), the plane's pilots being dragged down the aisle by the stewardesses, McCroskey jumping out a window... the list goes on.

Visual Pun: "The shit's going to hit the fan," "Okay, boys, let's take some pictures," "Steve, I want every light you can get poured onto that field," "They're on instruments," and "We'll get him down safe," among others. The "check the radar range" pun hasn't aged well, though — although Amana still makes RadarRange microwave ovens, it's no longer the best-known brand (And most people nowadays don't know that microwaves were originally known as RadarRanges because microwave cooking was an accidental discovery made by people developing radars).

Wacky Sound Effect: The jetliner takes off and sounds like a steam train, then sounds like a propeller plane in flight.

Watch Out for That Tree! A woman is chasing after her fiancé is going into the military, and he is standing in the doorway of the moving plane. As she chases it the way someone might follow a train, she keeps crashing into things. Like a lamp post, a steel crane, a telephone pole...

Wham Line: "Every passenger on this plane who had fish for dinner will become violently ill in the next half hour". Capt. Oveur ate fish. Dr. Rumack had lasagna.

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